166 THE WONDERS OF INSTINCT 



few shovelfuls of coal in its inside. This heat will pro- 

 duce mechanical work. 



Even so with the beast. As nothing is made from 

 nothing, the egg supplies first the materials of the new- 

 born animals; then the plastic food, the smith of living 

 creatures, increases the body, up to a certain limit, and 

 renews it as it wears away. The stoker works at the 

 same time, without stopping. Fuel, the source of energy, 

 makes but a short stay in the system, where it is con- 

 sumed and furnishes heat, whence movement is derived. 

 Life is a fire-box. Warmed by its food, the animal ma- 

 chine moves, walks, runs, jumps, swims, flies, sets its 

 locomotory apparatus going in a thousand manners. 



To return to the young Lycosse, they grow no larger 

 until the period of their emancipation. I find them at 

 the age of seven months the same as when I saw them 

 at" their birth. The egg supplied the materials necessary 

 for their tiny frames ; and, as the loss of waste substance 

 is, for the moment, excessively small, or even nil, addi- 

 tional plastic food is not needed so long as the wee crea- 

 ture does not grow. In this respect, the prolonged 

 abstinence presents no difficulty. But there remains the 

 question of energy-producing food, which is indispensa- 

 ble, for the little Lycosa moves, when necessary, and very 

 actively at that. To what shall we attribute the heat 

 expended upon action, when the animal takes absolutely 

 no nourishment? 



An idea suggests itself. We say to ourselves that, 

 without being life, a machine is something more than 

 matter, for man has added a little of his mind to it. 



